Igor Afrikantov

Igor Ivanovich Afrikantov (1916–1969) was a Russian designer and manager of building nuclear reactors and components for the Russian nuclear industry, civil fleet, and navy.

Life and career

Igor Ivanovich Afrikantov was born in Pushkarka, a village in the Arzamas District of Gorky Oblast, Russia. He attended secondary school in Gorky from 1924 to 1934 and attended Gorky Polytechnic Institute from 1934 to 1938, receiving his degree as a shipbuilder and heat engineer.

After graduation, Afrikantov led a design bureau team at a shipbuilding yard in Stalingrad from 1939 until 1942. He later worked at plant No. 92 (later the Gorky Machine-Building Plant or GMZ) in Gorky, where he held different positions. Between 1951 and 1954 he was the chief designer of the plant's SDB. From 1954 to 1964 he was head and chief designer of the plant's SDB, rising to head and chief designer of the pilot design bureau for mechanical engineering, a position he held from 1964 to 1969. Afrikantov was immediately involved in and directed programs on making components of diffusion plants, commercial nuclear reactors, and reactors and steam supply systems (SSS) for nuclear propelled surface ships and submarines.^[1]

In 1960 he was awarded the Hero of Socialist Labor. He was also awarded the Order of Lenin (in 1951, 1959, and 1960), the Order of the Red Banner of Labor (1954), the Order of the Red Star (1945), the Order of the Badge of Honor (1944) and the 1941-45 Great Patriotic War Labor Valor medal. He is an author of many scientific works.

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